Marketing Using Forums

Forums are a big part of the internet today. People register to join then post messages in a bulletin board type website that other registered users can respond to. AS communities they quickly become tight-knit with heirarchies, regular posters, people who simply read and not post, to people passing through posting once and then never again. They often have strict rules that are enforced by their moderators that vary from forum to forum. The "No advertising" and no "spam" rules are typically the stricted of the rules regularly enforced.

So, if you plan to market your website on a forum, how do you work with and inside those rules? "Spam" can vay from person to person and is usually enforced by the moderator-on-duty's discretion. In this sense, learning the community is very powerful so you know where the lines are even if you intend to post a blatant ad. The most effective way through the rules is something called a Signature. A signature is your own customized area that appears under every post you do. Signatures sometimes have their own rules, but simply linking your site in there with a catchy headline will drive traffic to your site.

It's recommended NOT to post sales letter type posts on message boards since they have the possibility of getting your account banned from the forum on the spot. Noone likes their forum used as a big advertising and commercial holding place. They want contributions and people who really want to discuss the topic at hand. If you come out wanting to sell something you run the very real risk of being ousted by the administrators. Hang out there for awhile, get to know some of the forum's regular posters, THEN take a shot at trying to advertise to them. Do it subtely and not obviously. Blatand advertising on a message board is a cardinal sin that has got many ambitious internet marketers banned on sight. Make sure you approach and do it right.

Credit: The Cash Monkey
Chimp Change; Author of an internet marketing guide for beginners. Instant download. $79

Web 2.0 and the Future of the Internet

Wikipedia defines Web 2.0 as "a perceived second-generation of Web-based services—such as social networking sites, wikis, communication tools, and folksonomies—that emphasize online collaboration and sharing among users." Social networking sites are huge today with power houses like YouTube and MySpace leading the pack. New websites like Free IQ and Friendster look to make their mark in this rapidly growing business as well.

For the internet marketer this means you have an ability to find highly targeted people in seconds. By utilizing their "search" feature you can quickly locate and market to a targeted niche of people with interests you are interested in. By using the best and newest web technology the savvy marketer can make use of the best video and audio software to filter traffic anywhere they want it to go. Tracking is often possible allowing a clear idea of what your visitors are doing from the Web 2.0 sites to your Thank You pages.

The above mentioned Web 2.0 sites become, or will become, multi-billion dollar businesses. That's right, BILLION. The buyout of YouTube by Google is a hint of what's to come in this rapidly growing area of the internet. The sites are hugely popular and command so much traffic that missing an opportunity to market on them is becoming less and more mandatory. Marketers will huge lists in multiple niches will probably be immune to the changing of the internet because they can filter their lists to their foot holds in Web 2.0 sites and do just as well there. The new marketer really needs to step up and keep up with the changes or the world may change around them before they learn how to adapt to needed new ways of marketing.

Free Bonus Overload

Who doesn't like free stuff? Free stuff can't possibly be bad right? How many times have you turned down a free bonus? You've been there before. You open a page to the next great internet marketing product and right before you get to the order button is page after page of free bonuses. The average user probably scrolls past those to see the price without even looking.

A lot of the time there's so many free bonuses it gets distracting. Some sites over anywhere from five to eight or more free bonuses. Free bonuses are used as a value adding tool to their primary product, but at some point it needs to slow down. It's best to not go overboard with adding free bonuses or it can eclipse the value of the product you're actually trying to sell. This works for both the vendor and the affiliate in trying to outdo each other and other competing products since it can distract easier than most things on a sales page. Free Bonuses are sometimes used to justify a high price tag by giving more product than originally offered. This can be a mistake too as it can backfire and make the product look cheap.

Free bonuses can drop the value of our product. When using too many a potential customer may think you are offering so many free bonuses because you don't have enough faith in your primary product. They may think the product can't stand on it's own and the free offers are meant to entice them to buy a suboptimal product with free stuff they'll read or use. Those free bonuses will probably be better for opt-in lists where you can exchange them for their email address without losing them to your main product.

The Cash Monkey is the creator of Chimp Change. A step-by-step guide for making money online that burns through the rehashed nonsense gurus put out on a yearly basis. Visit our new Squidoo Lens and chat about the articles or internet marketing.

The "Secret" Myth

It feels like for the past couple of years on the internet an idea of a "secret" that will clear up all your financial worries has been marketed. These products will tell you they have what noone else is telling you to making money online. That, they alone, can end your financial worries and let you work one, or two hours, a day and make enough money to retire by next year. They go on to say that to buy from anyone else would be a mistake and not to trust other products but their own.

Internet Marketing is filled with buzzwords designed to capture a potential customer's attention long enough to get a sign up or make a sale. "Secret", Revealed" and "Discover" are often used as sales words to make their product or headline stand out. The words further push the belief that there is some type of hidden knowledge kept from them and is why they aren't making any money.

The entire process of internet marketing is actually nothing anyone would categorize as "secret" information. It's a matter of doing the right steps in the right order. The process doesn't change no matter what niche you're in. It is these steps, that order, that is often dodged, ducked, and written around in internet marketing ebooks, sites, and articles. So if it's so simple to do why isn't the information readily available?

Those internet marketers or gurus have spent a lot of their own time, effort, and money in learning the business and discovering for themselves the "secret" they market. They all were once new to this business and have discovered that the most valuable information rarely comes freely or cheaply, no matter how simple the knowledge may be. This is the reason why the information is never free. A question every marketer who wants to be successful on the internet has to ask themselves is how much that information is worth to them. You will pay for that knowledge with any combination of money, effort, and time if you stick with it, and devoting more time to any of the three will cut down time on the others. Even with the unremarkable "secret" in your hands it's still up to you to make something of it. The price of that knowledge is the value of it's worth since few people ever really realize how important the information is if it's freely given to them. The price is one filter set up to automatically turn away anyone who doesn't realize the worth of the "secret", even if there really isn't one.

The Cash Monkey is the creator of Chimp Change. A step-by-step guide for making money online that burns through the rehashed nonsense gurus put out on a yearly basis. Visit our new Squidoo Lens to discuss more about internet marketing.

Three Reasons To Unsubcribe To A Guru's Mailing List

If you've just got your feet wet in internet marketing you've probably just subscribed to a bunch of guru mailing lists. The benefit to do this is simple, since you want to learn how to email market and techniques the professionals use. Signing up for a large amount of guru mailing lists may not be the best idea though. So how do you decide when you should opt-out of a guru's mailing list?

1. Hard Sells. This is an easy reason to spot to opt-out. If you're continually being sold to and getting little to no useful information it's probably a good time to cut the cord with that guru.

2. Noise. If you're on a lot of mailing lists everyone is trying to tell you to do different things. This can create a lot of noise and unneeded information in your head as you try to sort out what exactly you need to do. Information overload, however useful the information may be, can slow down your progress. Reduce the noise of ten or more email subscriptions so you can focus on a few.

3. Pack Mentality. What pack mentality basically is is when a lot of guru's all send you the same offer, probably the same day, for the next big thing in internet marketing. Not every guru is a part of this big launch wave every few months, though they can be hard to find sometimes. This is a good reason to opt-out of several lists since you can be pretty sure they'll try the same thing again later. Rather than using their lsit to teach you some of the basics and fundamentals you really need to learn, they want you to buy the next newest, shiniest, information product to get that information instead. No thanks.

It is recommended, and correct, to only listen to a few of the professionals. Find out which guru(s) you really connect with and that you can really trust then unsubscribe to all the rest. You will probably still receive the pack mentality emails every now and then, but the benefit is that you'll get focused information on an aspect you can improve on in internet marketing. If you're still not receiving the information you want or feel you should be getting, unsubscribe to more until you are.

The Cash Monkey is the creator of Chimp Change. A step-by-step guide for making money online that burns through the rehashed nonsense gurus put out on a yearly basis. Visit our new Squidoo Lens.

Chimp Change Review

There's a new Internet Marketing guide out for beginning marketers called Chimp Change. I've read it and this is the review.

It is written, much like The Rich Jerk, using an gimmic named called "Cash Monkey".

Chimp Change is set up in an easy to read outline format. Each "step" is explained in good detail with the order preset. It mainly covers marketing your own product, but a new internet marketer should have no trouble reverting it to Affiliate Marketing.

It's a little pricey at $79, but if you're new to this business it is probably worth the price. There are cheaper guides out there, but vagueness at certain points and steps in the process will make this one the better buy.